Tropico 5

This post is from the now defunct website “A GameDev Plays…”, copied here for posterity

Why do all those tinpot dictators have weird notions and do strange
things. Perhaps you can do better in Tropico
5, a city management game set on a tropical
island. The player is dictator of the all they survey, which considering
most gamers was going to happen anyway.

Tropico is a series of city management games set on tropical islands
(not sure exactly where, probability the Caribbean). In this fifth
edition (and the first I’ve played) you start during colonial times and
go beyond the present day as technology improves. Gameplay is fairly
standard for the genre: set policies and create buildings. It is a mix
of strategy and city organisation - you need to keep people happy, build
the economy, research science and (unusually for the genre) create a
tourist industry. The player is (probably) the island’s dictator, a nice
comment on the way players normally act in such games. The game plays to
the theme in a lighthearted manner. Attempts at humour start well, but
becomes repetitive.

The campaign is 16 missions, each building from the last. Although there
is a clever reset half-way through, so that all the player’s improved
game knowledge can be put to good use in building up again better from
the beginning. Graphics are good and you can zoom in very close. The
simulation models works fine, no obvious flaws, but then I found the
game very easy. I only failed one mission once in normal mode,
everything else I cruised through without serious impediment. It says
something about the game that I didn’t mind the lack of challenge, the
game was still very enjoyable and worthwhile.

Tropico 5 is US$24.99 on the Steam
store for PC, Mac and Linux.
It has been bundled.